Microsoft plans to follow up the lackluster release of its first generation Zune portable media player with a new model by the end of the year.

The Zune 2.0 will come with standard and flash based drives, but will it manage to garner more market share than its predecessor?

Some labeled the Zune as a potential “iPod Killer” in the hype preceding the device’s launch last year.

The iTunes Music Store may be the first to offer DRM-free songs from EMI artists, but the Zune Marketplace won’t be far behind. Microsoft has plans to make the premium tracks available for download from its online store in the near future, and believes this move can only help promote healthier competition between the Zune and the iPod.

There was only one decent reason to buy a PC in the months leading up to the launch of Windows Vista: the Express Upgrade program, which gave buyers of new PCs with Windows XP a free or cheap upgrade to Vista. The "Express" part of the upgrade is turning out to be a bit misleading for Dell customers, with the upgrades arriving on a first-come first-served basis in as many as 6-8 weeks, plus a website that’s experiencing nasty downtime, bugs, driver issues and other kinks.

Last week, Engadget reported that sources close to Microsoft had passed along information about a Zune-based competitor to Apple’s iPhone. Following up on those reports, CrunchGear goes on to say today that the Zune phone is not just a rumor and is confirmed for a 2007 release.

The buzz surrounding the announcement of Apple’s iPhone has reached feverish proportions throughout the blogosphere in recent weeks. Not wanting to be left out of the smartphone party, rumors are now circulating that Microsoft is working on plans to develop its own Zune branded cellular phone.

Christmas 2006 was another gangbuster for Apple’s iTunes website and all things iPod-associated. Microsoft’s Zune? Not so much. So far, Zune is the GoBot to Apple’s Transformer.

After non-stop criticism throughout the Internet of Microsoft’s entry into the portable media player market, the Zune has attracted the attention of males in a couple of age categories.

Hitwise has done an interesting analysis of searches related to iPod and Microsoft’s three-week old competitor Zune. In just under a month, Microsoft has peaked curiosity, but buyers seem reluctant to buy.

After a promising start for the Microsoft Zune player, market sales dropped drastically.

The SF Gate has an article where David Placek, founder and CEO of Lexicon, disusses how his company came up with the name Zune. Some bullets: